Interpreters 'hunted down' by Iraqi death squads

[AlamoDemoc]

Interpreters used by British Army 'hunted down' by Iraqi death squads:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1990392.ece

By Phil Sands in Amman
Published: 17 November 2006

Iraqi interpreters working with the British Army in Basra are being systematically hunted down and killed.

At least 21 have been kidnapped and shot in head over the past three weeks, their bodies dumped in different parts of the city. Another three are still missing. In a single mass killing, 17 interpreters were killed.

"This is not a general threat against Iraqi security forces; interpreters are specifically being killed," an Iraqi police officer familiar with the case told The Independent by telephone from Basra. "It has been happening at a low level for the past year, but the campaign is getting worse.

"First they get letters warning them to stop co-operating with the occupation forces, then they are killed. The interpreters are the major target now. Word spreads about who is working with the British - neighbours, people in the street, police officers all see the interpreters. Their identities don't remain very secret and someone is going around trying to kill them and they're succeeding," he said.

"All of us live in terror for our lives. I want to stop this work, but my family needs the money. As far as the militias are concerned, I have turned my back on Iraq. All interpreters are waiting to be killed and in three months' time we probably will have been." Tshasin Difaee, a 30-year-old former interpreter, said he quit after being threatened by Mr Sadr's Mehdi militia.

"They knew my name and I got a call on my mobile phone, and was told to leave my job or lose my head," he said. "I'm still scared they're going to come for me, they can come at any time."

Speaking to The Independent in Amman, Abu Kamael, a member of the Mehdi militia, said translators were legitimate targets and subject to the group's death squads.....Interpreters are not working for the good of Iraq, they are working for invading powers, they are traitors and are to be punished like traitors."

[IntiRaymi]

1. Valid tactic in a war for your homeland.

Interpreters *could* be considered to be a group of traitors - depending on whose side you are on. They enable the enemy troops with battlefield intelligence, and as such they must be liquidated. This is how it works.

[AlamoDemoc]

2. Sad, but true